Adelaide Festival. Queens Theatre. 26 Feb 2025
This is a cult show. And without a doubt, followers of Hedwig were in massed attendance tonight; the mere bat of an eyelash was enough to set them off, cheering and catcalling with gay abandon.
For those of us who hadn’t seen the show or the film previously (all over YouTube), it seemed to take a while to kick in. At the Queen’s Theatre, a surprisingly small stage was set in the half round (the crescent?), covered with a circular shimmering silver tube curtain.
Hedwig (Seann Miley Moore) is an East German refugee, having escaped to the United States with their then US soldier husband. They haven’t escaped unscathed; they had to ‘leave something behind’ and a botched operation leaves them with ‘an angry inch’ for genitals “where my penis used to be, where my vagina never was”. Collecting and losing another lover (the rock star playing next door) they are now married to Yitzhak (Adam Noviello) who sings back-up in the punk band The Angry Inch.
The show opens with Tear Me Down which places the narrative firmly into the anger space as they recall their life as Hansel Schmidt in Berlin in the early 1960s. Much of the narrative of the show is based on their search for their ‘other half’, which is inspired by Aristophane’s speech in Plato’s Symposium, who opines that humans were once attached to another – the angry gods split them in two, and they spend their lives looking for their other half, their soul mate. This is Hedwig’s mission, as it is articulated in The Origin of Love.
The rock musical was written by two Americans (Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell) in the 1990s, and some of the references, including musically, are dated and America-centric. There’s also the double entendres common to every drag cabaret show, “I do love a warm hand on my entrance”. Occasionally however, Miley Moore kicks it into 2025 with pointed references to contemporary issues – unsurprisingly, JK Rowling gets a name check (and Hedwig the Owl gets a hoot check).
Hedwig’s anger propels the show, and while I’d hesitate to describe the band as having a punk ethos, they certainly perform the songs with an energy and enthusiasm that keeps the whole thing rocking (sound design by Jamie Mensworth, musical director Victoria Falconer).
While initially Jeremy Allen’s sparse set seemed a little limiting, it quickly revealed its ‘nooks and crannies’ as it were; ladders leading to flyovers, walls becoming doors to a rock stadium and Geoff Cobham’s lighting design brought depth and angularity to the dark design.
In the tradition of the pub gig vs the theatre show, the fourth wall is a flimsy construct, with Hedwig using the audience as part of the show, chatting directly, running through the crowd, and using audience members as props.
There’s a lot to see and take in here, and what at first seems like a paean to Rocky Horror develops into a thought provoking look at when to let go and what to leave behind, beyond the physical.
There are still some loose ends here, not least some of the linking narratives that don’t quite hit the mark, but there is still relevance to be had in this quietly aging production; while it’s not a knockout, it still packs a punch.
Arna Eyers-White
When: 26 Feb to 15 Mar
Where: Queens Theatre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
